A tough challenge from BRADMAN today. Had to go hard at it over a couple of sittings and still needed the internet’s help on a couple of clues.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SECOND | Instant support (6) |
| double def | ||
| 4 | OLD SARUM | Sold with difficulty, a strange historical site (3,5) |
| [SOLD]* A RUM (strange) | ||
| 9 | RARELY | Customer finally goes to a bank on very few occasions (6) |
| R (customeR, finally) A RELY (bank) | ||
| 10 | MARABOUT | Holy man’s ram, we may deduce? (8) |
| cryptic def; RAM may be clued as MAR ABOUT. new word for me. | ||
| 12 | KOHL | Something black coming from Chancellor (4) |
| cryptic def; referring to helmut kohl; substance used for eye make-up | ||
| 13 | MAGISTRATE | Wise men, holy person and judge – together such may administer law (10) |
| MAGI (wise men) ST (holy person) RATE (judge) | ||
| 15 | RIGHT WINGERS | Footballers who are likely to vote Conservative? (5-7) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 18 | BRILLIANTINE | Fab man can start to export oil (12) |
| BRILL (fab) IAN (man) TIN (can) E (start to Export) | ||
| 21 | PATRIARCHY | Party I arranged includes cunning arrangement to favour men (10) |
| [PARTY I]* containing ARCH (cunning) | ||
| 22 | SAFE | Something that may be enclosed keeps female free from danger (4) |
| SAE (something that may be enclosed, Stamped Addressed Envelope) containing F (female) | ||
| 24 | DEEJAYED | In performance English man or woman played records (8) |
| DEED (performance) containing [ E (english) JAY (man or woman) ] | ||
| 25 | See 8 | |
| 26 | SEEDSMAN | Dealer in small things is mad, sense abandoned (8) |
| MAD SENSE* | ||
| 27 | ARGENT | Heraldic colour of particular gentleman (6) |
| hidden in “..particulAR GENTleman” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STRIKERS | Footballers who demand better pay? (8) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 2 | CARTHAGE | Old city transport outside hotel (8) |
| CARTAGE (transport) around H (hotel) | ||
| 3 | NULL | Useless Greek character, bad one being thrown out (4) |
| NU (greek character) iLL (bad, without I – one) | ||
| 5 | LEADING LIGHT | Space in literature given to frivolous No.1 celebrity (7,5) |
| LEADING (space in literature, blank space between two lines) LIGHT (frivolous) | ||
| 6 | SHATTERING | Terrible threat lying within grass could be overwhelming (10) |
| [THREAT]* in SING (grass) | ||
| 7 | ROO BAR | Sound of regret when meeting obstacle? This fixture on vehicle will limit damage (3,3) |
| ROO (sounds like RUE, regret) BAR (obstacle) | ||
| 8, 25 | MOTHER NATURE | See supposedly creative female torture he-man cruelly (6,6) |
| [TORTURE HE-MAN]* | ||
| 11 | DANIEL ORTEGA | President will offer no great deal, I fancy (6,6) |
| [NO GREAT DEAL I]*, president of nicaragua | ||
| 14 | PTARMIGANS | Cuckoo smart, aping birds (10) |
| [SMART APING]* | ||
| 16 | LIGATURE | Two characters as one showing unusual art and guile (8) |
| [ ART GUILE ]* | ||
| 17 | SEVEREST | Most violent storm’s beginning on top of mountain (8) |
| S (Storm, beginning) EVEREST (mountain) | ||
| 19 | SPADES | King and queen and others – see them in gardens (6) |
| cryptic def; deck of cards | ||
| 20 | ATHENE | Goddess ‘as old-fashioned vitality, not half! (6) |
| hATH (‘as, old-fashioned) ENErgy (vitality, not half) | ||
| 23 | HAIR | Controversial show creating shocks? (4) |
| double def | ||
I agree with TL — a bit of a stinker by the Don’s standards. My LOI was 20dn ATHENE, but I didn’t write it in because I couldn’t parse it — and I still think it’s a bit of a whopper. Some very good clues, though, and very good brain fodder which I enjoyed a lot. I would hardly admit it, but I found Dogberry yesterday easier.
Yes Hornbeam and Turbolegs, I am not sure about the parsing of ATHENE. I think the suggestion is probably right but it was by no means clear to me. The other clues parsed fine but with words likw DEEJAYED and MARABOUT it did need some thought. Enjoyed it all the same. Thanks to BRADMAN as always.
We worked steadily through this without too many problems after 1ac, 4 and 9 gave us a flying start. We biffed ATHENE from the definition but couldn’t parse it; 10ac was our LOI after we rtealised it was a ‘reverse engineered’ clue and looked uo MARABOUT in Chambers.
MAGISTRATE and PTARMIGANS were our favourites.
Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.
After several attempts I threw in the towel unable to figure out MARABOUT, BRILLIANTINE, or MOTHER NATURE (“see” at the beginning of the clue was confusing but I guess it’s needed for the surface to work.) Needed the blog for the parsing of ATHENE abd LEADING LIGHT both of which were guessable from the definitions alone. DEEJAYED and DANIEL ORTEGA were favorites Thanks to both.
Any thanks to both. I do enjoy the Don’s contributions. I had to google check several today so was in learning mode again. Got to NULL through a dimly remembered null set from Maths and the self addressed envelope is becoming a thing of the more recent past. I haven’t seen one for some years. Like others, ATHENE went in unpaused.
Harder than the usual Bradman. When I saw ‘President’ as the def and an anagram, DANIEL ORTEGA was hardly the easy answer I’d been expecting and there were lots of other difficult ones. Looks like I’m in good company anyway, being unable to parse ATHENE or LEADING LIGHT.
I liked ROO BAR which I was surprised made it into a UK crossword.
I don’t know if it’s a temporary glitch or not, but clicking on today’s crossword on the FT site this morning brought up a ‘Become an FT subscriber to read’ page, rather than the usual crossword itself. Maybe at least some good things do come to an end – let’s hope not.
Thanks to Turbolegs and Bradman.
Not surprised to see this one go unblogged for some time. It was a tough nut, Bradman, and I was still cracking away at it till late! My first sitting went well with half the grid solved. Left for lunch thinking I’d prevail rapidly on my return but no such luck. Much to admire though. I liked the footy clues, MOTHER NATURE AND PTARMIGANS but gave up in the SW corner. Also didn’t know MARABOUT.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
It looks as though this may be the last free FT crossword, as today the only access appears to be behind a paywall.
Goujeers @8 Over the last several years I’ve periodically run into the paywall but it always seems to be temporary. I ran into it tonight on my desktop but not on my phone; however, there was no print option so I emailed the puzzle to myself and was able to print it from my email.
Alack, alay: I too have just hit the firewall. Weekend of self-isolation devastated.
Tony @ 9: Any chance you could forward the email to me at
meicgoodyear – at- hotmail.com
please?
Saturday’s puzzle is now accessible on the FT website, though for some reason there’s an image file (PNG) instead of the usual PDF.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Sure was a toughie from the Don here, taking nearly twice as long as usual to get it done … and then only with more electronic help along the way. Only ended up getting the last two when saying 19d out loud at the breakfast table and my partner yelling out SPADES immediately without even seeing how many letters were involved – strange how different people can see the obvious ! Only then could I see DEEJAYED.
Grinned when seeing ROO BAR, haven’t seen one of those for ages other than on large transport vehicles. MARABOUT, LIGATURE and the LEADING part of 5d were all new terms. Had no problems with the parsing of ATHENE even though it took a while to work it out.
A good workout.
The FT has done it again with the Monday puzzle., paywall-wise
Goujeers @14
Yes, I have already emailed the crossword editor about this issue.
There’s a .png of today’s puzzle on the FT site now
Thank you, Turbolegs. Kohl has a third play on ‘coal’ which is black if ‘coming from’ is viewed as sounding like.